MixedSydney Morning Herald (AU)It should be noted that Hollinghurst’s prose is as vivid and exact as ever, his youthful virtuosity long since broken in, and the narrative rhythms so smooth that this rather long book can be read with speed and ease; his evocation of the worlds through which David passes is the usual persuasive combination of experience, observation, empathy and what one assumes is research ... The novel’s main interest in David’s racial heritage is the bigotry it provokes. In other words, how it makes him a victim. As a gesture of solidarity with those who have to put up with racism, this is ambiguous, to say the least.
Colson Whitehead
PositiveSydney Morning Herald (AUS)If Harlem Shuffle was a caper, Crook Manifesto is an apocalypse ... Eventually we see beyond even the graft: not this bent cop – a whole lot of bent cops – or that bent politician, but unintended consequences and dodgy research, with its skewed rubrics and dirty data. Spoiler alert: it was the think tanks all along.
Adam Thompson
PositiveThe Sydney Morning Herald (AU)That mordant, edgy humour is one of the collection’s strengths, especially when combined with a touch of the fantastic ... Not everything in this vein is a success...this faux-woke couple are so awful that white readers can let themselves off the hook: they will find it easy to not see themselves ... If the stories share a weakness, it is one that short stories in general are prone to: they sometimes end before reaching their potential. That’s a criticism, but it’s also a way of saying Adam Thompson is a writer I’d like to see stretch his wings.
Colson Whitehead
PositiveThe Sydney Morning Herald (AUS)Harlem Shuffle is true to its form: gangster fans will hear the rhymes with The Roaring Twenties and Mean Streets—buddies who find themselves on plot-generating divergent paths, marked with themes of loyalty and betrayal ... Whitehead...is as scathing about black gentility and snobbery here as he was in John Henry Days (the Encyclopaedic one, by the way), with another angle to the critique. In Harlem Shuffle, they’re not only emotionally repressive, but another racket: black capitalism turns out to be black people ripping off other black people. It is a bit of a flaw that Ray’s in-laws are more vividly drawn than his wife. Whitehead makes sure that Elizabeth doesn’t exist simply in relation to Ray: she works for a travel agent, booking her clients into non-restricted hotels, and later organising accommodation for civil rights activists. All this means, though, is that she’s largely just a conduit for the Broader Historical Background. And as far as her relation to Ray goes, she is the one from whom everything must be hidden, and also the one whose worldly acumen doesn’t extend to getting wise to her husband’s double life ... Harlem Shuffle isn’t stark, and doesn’t lack for wit—it’s made for pleasure—though the prose is still lean compared with some of the earlier work: it won’t provide resistance to anyone seeking the bingeworthy excitements that Whitehead is as good at as he is at everything else he does.
Geoff Dyer
MixedSydney Morning Herald\"Sometimes the smart-aleckery comes perilously close to a form of Dad humour, if the Dad in question had spent too much time at the Venice Biennale ... If all this makes it sounds as if Broadsword Calling Danny Boy is only an exercise in being jauntily superior, it should be emphasised that Dyer also loves Where Eagles Dare as you only can love the films of your youth (he was 10 when it came out) and has seen it innumerable times. The book isn\'t overburdened with ideas, and perhaps could have done with a bit more meta-criticism. But he is a great noticer and a great describer, so the final effect combines well the mockery and rapt devotion that are essential to the camp enjoyment of the movies.\
